Fortune 500 Companies Drool Over Linux Servers

The Linux Foundation, in collaboration with Yeoman Technology Group, conducted an invitation-only survey of 1893 enterprises using Linux showing that Linux servers are well-loved at Fortune 500 companies. The data pool was compromised of the Linux Foundation End User Council, private companies and government institutions selected by the Linux Foundation and Yeoman Technology Group.

Everyone wants to know the secret sauce of successful companies. However, some companies don’t like the idea of sharing what’s behind the scenes. While others think there’s no such thing as “the secret sauce.” So what’s the point of having this kind of survey?

There was a 10% increase in the number of respondents, which showed a bigger perspective of Linux adoption trends. The researchers focused on 428 IT professionals who work for companies with sales more than $500 million or 500+ employees.

According to the researcher, “This year’s Enterprise Linux survey shows that affinity among new and veteran Linux users continues to increase at the expense of Windows and Unix. Eighty-four percent of organizations currently using Linux have expanded its usage over the last twelve months, and continue to rely on it as their preferred platform for ‘greenfield’ deployments, as well as for mission-critical applications.”

Here’s what they found out:

8 out of 10 respondents say they are adding Linux servers

Linux dominates in new strategic areas of business

Linux have fewer platform concerns, overall

Collaborative development on new projects are gain from enterprise end users

The three main reasons cited why these companies adopt Linux servers over other alternative operating system are lower total cost, features and security.

Linux is widely-used by large enterprises worldwide and its growth continues. The survey results show that 79.8% of the respondents believed that Linux usage in their companies will increase in the next five years. On the other hand, 21.7% of respondents are planning to increase Windows servers and 25% of them are planning to decrease the number of Windows servers.

Overall, the report clearly stated, “enterprise users who are motivated to take a survey from The Linux Foundation are not an unbiased lot, but the size of these organizations, their buying power and technical prowess – as filtered by The Linux Foundation and Yeoman – can provide important guidance both for Linux vendors and developers, as well as their competitors.”

The respondents represent some of the largest and most prestigious global enterprises including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, NTT, Deutsche Bank, Dreamworks, ADP, McKinsey and Company, Bank of New York, NYSE, CME Group, NASDAQ QMX, Goodrich, MetLife, AIG and many more.

Jake Neeley is a content marketing and social media geek who loves learning, outdoor sports (especially those in Utah mountains), and time with the fam. Connect with Jake on Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.